The following background information may present examples of specific aspects of the prior art (e.g., without limitation, approaches, facts, or common wisdom) that, while expected to be helpful to further educate the reader as to additional aspects of the prior art, is not to be construed as limiting the present invention, or any embodiments thereof, to anything stated or implied therein or inferred thereupon.
However, there are alternative wine closures are substitute closures used in the wine industry for sealing wine bottles in place of traditional cork closures. These synthetic corks are made from plastic compounds designed to look and “pop” like natural cork, but without the risk of TCA contamination The following is an example of a specific aspect in the prior art that, while expected to be helpful to further educate the reader as to additional aspects of the prior art, is not to be construed as limiting the present invention, or any embodiments thereof, to anything stated or implied therein or inferred thereupon.
By way of educational background, another aspect of the prior art generally useful to be aware of is that wine and related types of beverages are most often packaged in glass bottles and depending on the kind or quality of the wine, the bottles are sealed with a cork. Some wines, e.g. Champagnes, are corked with stoppers having enlarged heads and which can be grasped and twisted. However the majority of red, white and rose wines are “corked” with stoppers made out of cork which is recessed in the neck of the bottle requiring some implement such as a corkscrew to extract the cork. Though there are other wines that are bottle packaged with “screw tops” and movement in this direction is obviously predicated to some extent on meeting consumer's demands for packaging which is easily opened without the necessity of additional equipment.
In many instances, wine fraud is a form of fraud in which the wine bottle is molested to change either the wine, or the bottle itself. The wines can be adulterated, usually with the addition of cheaper products such as juices and sometimes with the addition of harmful chemicals and sweeteners to compensate in color or flavor. Another form, is the substitution of labels, with cheap poor quality products sold under the labels of more expensive better wines. It is known that Federal governments and individual producers have taken many efforts in order to curb the prevalence of wine fraud. Some examples include marking bottles with engraved serial numbers on the glass and taking more control of the distribution process of their wines. Better documentation of the wine bottles can also help reduce wine fraud. However, for older vintages, the threat of fraud persists.
It is well known that a bottle stopper, especially for wine, is generally made from cork, which is an impermeable, buoyant material. Because of its impermeability, buoyancy, elasticity and fire retardant, cork is used in a variety of products, the most common of which is for wine stoppers. It is significant to note that both types of bottle stoppers may have other components and materials integrated therein.
Near-field communication (NFC) is a type of radio frequency communication technology, operating at about 13.56 MHz and at bandwidth of about 2 MHz, which allows for read-only and read-write communications between a NFC-enabled RF tag reader and a NFC-enabled tag. NFC operation is based on inductive coupling between two loop antennas, which allows for sharing of power and data between NFC-enabled devices.
Even though the above cited methods for detecting wine fraud address some of the needs of the market, a bottle fraud detection system and method that integrates a wireless communication device tag into a bottle cork, and then tracks and analyzes information from the tag to predict fraud is still desired.